World on Fire

Image credit: Creative Commons  

World On Fire

                                                                                                

Smoke clears, bodies lie, blood soaks the ground beneath the feet where millions have walked in the history of a thousand years where culture and art and gastronomy meld together, now meshed with the stench of the innocent dead. Now a continent is on lock down, in the name of religion.

Paris is burning.

Hot sands boil over as tensions that have simmered for millennia explode yet again with bombs, and bullets and bodies in the streets of the cradle of civilization as it rocks from side to side and not in a comforting or healing sort of way. Countries take sides, again. Coalitions they are called.

Syria is burning.

Fingers point, voices raised. Change for change sake demanded played out live somewhere in the 24 hour news cycle. Meanwhile a gunman takes a staggering female hostage, and shoots a hero who decided to actually do something about it. The cameras roll. The doctoral student lay bleeding on the street while the gunman again takes aim. Again the pulling of a trigger pointed at the hero’s head. Gun jams. A life spared due to a mechanical malfunction. There are no marches for the hero.

The US is burning.

All of this plays out in high definition on countless channels devoted to endless streams of content. No more warnings of "the following may be difficult to watch,” as they proceed to immediately show everything in graphic detail. Every pixel perpetually filled with hate from corner to corner. It doesn’t go very well with the veggie stuffed acorn squash as the nightly news drones on during dinner.

The media is burning.

It’s been said, that the best part of beating your own head against a brick wall is when you finally… stop.

When will we? We are all fragile.

We won’t.

While the World is on fire.

Again.